Praise Vs. Criticism

One of the greatest kinds of characters in a story is the anti-hero. It helps that the character is not characterized as a hero or villain or as good or bad. The best area to find interesting characters is the gray area between good and bad. The main character in Hate List is Valerie and I still have yet to decide if she should be called a villain or a hero.
Without her actions of creating the hate list the people that were killed and injured might still be alive. Specific people she put on the list were hunted down by Nick Levil on the day of the shootings. Although I still wonder what part Jeremy played in the shootings. The same attack at the school could have happened, excluding the targets that Valerie had picked. Nick seemed to be racing towards the same destiny of shooting, killing, and eventual suicide. There’s a chance that with Jeremy’s help this same outcome could have happened. It might have been even worse if Valerie hadn’t been there.
Valerie did end up saving Jessica and possibly many other students and teachers in the process. This has kept me questioning whether I see her as misunderstood or someone that got away with a terrible crime.
Overall I think she deserves praise for saving a life and stopping the shootings. She also deserves to be criticized for making the list, even if she didn’t know what it would end up being used for. She can’t go back and stop the terrible things that happened at the school, yet she has learned from her mistakes and can only try her hardest to move forward.