Spoilers up to arc 7 / early arc 8. Honestly this is a rant post but I feel trying to read this series is like trying to eat a live animal since it fights back so much.
I became a fan with season 1 of the anime and started the Web novel at everyone's recommendation. At that point not much beyond arc 5 was translated and I dropped it until season 2 came out at which point I finished arc 5 and decided not to read ahead knowing how much more I'd enjoy what seemed like back to back action animated and after season 3 aired i decided I didn't want to wait and began what I think most web novel/ light novels readers consider peak rezero the problem is that after arc 6 it started to feel like tappei said now I need to do my homework since the ex stories stopped being cool bonuses and now to understand most characters, especially in volcanica I need to divert to other novels. Thats not to mention basically switching tracks completely having the story lose focus from a fairly linear story with reveals on past mysteries to be mystery set up after mystery set up. Thats to say nothing of the phase Tappei went through were he changed basic story structure to go beginning end middle instead of beginning middle end. To top it off when we eventually have our core cast reunite coming into arc 8 it turns out the main villian is yet another side story character we know nothing about without having to navigate a bunch of ex stories some of which are only partially related to her character and she has the same set up as yet another echidna clone we learn about at the end of arc 4 except shes been around longer. I've been spoiled on arc 9 simply from trying to figure out what I need to know for arc 8 and so much of the reading now feels like a slog compared to racing through arc 4. I still love Subaru as a character I'm not one of those fans who think arc 7 is wholly irredeemable or Subaru has to be a Aura monster to be a good character it just feels like I'm being expected to go on these side quests to catch up when even the main story is mostly side quests and diversions from our core cast and storyline. If anyone has any way of experiencing the story through an audio book or summaries im at the point of no longer getting joy from just reading it myself.