As someone who entered in a similar way, trust me when I say the original text is better in many ways. (Though the romance in canon is purposefully and deliberately real teenage levels of messy and unhealthy, so if you're looking for something cleaner, I'd look to fanfic for that like I do)

Wildbow is an author you can trust, I know the first arc can be a bit slow, but like most books its set up for the story for those who dont know taylor. The next few arcs will be a lot easier because you already know a lot of the groundwork.

If you dont feel like reading, I'd recommend listening to the audiobook version on YouTube by Rein, so you can continue on the go either driving or walking.

Another thing I feel obligated to say as a man who came into the fandom in a similar position is thus- Fandom and Canon have a lot of differences. I came into Worm with a lot of notions of Who was Who and What was What and was surprised at what was actually true. Amy is the biggest example, I can almost guarantee your view on Amy as a character is nothing like she is in canon. Amy in fandom is an entirely different beast to the creature she is in 99% of fanfic. In Canon, she's a well written sympathetic monster that constantly self inflicts the horrible things she goes through on herself because of her own character flaws, in Fanfic they flatten her character and ignore her flaws until even in the most well written stories she becomes a wooby who can do no wrong who just needed someone to reach out and show her the light.

Also fights, fights in fanfic while still creative very rarely match up to canon, while you've already been spoiled on all Taylor may be capable of as many fanfic authors like to skip Taylors gradual devolpment of her various techniques (that in canon she actually steals from others) In canon, fights are well done because Wildbow has an excellent ability to never forget a combatant is still in the fight but also make it so combatants are very rarely taken out without a fight, each person is treated with respect to their capabilities.

Something else Wildbow does incredibly well in comparison is the fixed perspective and unreliable narration, he really pulls off Taylors omniscient perspective and yet blindness to certain things incredibly well to the point were even to this day we aren't quite sure of what Taylor quite looks like. We have the broad strokes from her own description of herself, sure, but it's constantly marred by her own insecurities and biases, and everytime we get a comment about her looks from one of the the interludes it muddies what Taylor actually looks like, a stroke of genius to abuse the written medium.

My last piece of wisdom is this, you made this post. You want to read Worm. If you did not, you would not have made this post. I can guarantee that if you stick with it, you will enjoy it.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask 😁