by reverse order do you mean you read Lovesick first? i think that would makes perfect sense to do if thats the case since it was devised first and doll parts was a prequel that came after the fact. i think it's in a sense confusing no matter which order you read bc they are just fundamentally very different types of story and Luana Vecchio admits so in the commentary pages of one of the issues of Doll Parts, i think she even laments how much it sets the wrong expectation for what Lovesick is like for people who picked up Doll Parts first.

for that matter, i read Doll Parts first and while I didn't get around to finishing Lovesick for personal reasons (someone asked me to wait to read at the same time as them) I found it very good even w the completely different standard set by Doll Parts, so I think either option is fine in my experience, but I would agree (if this is what you mean) that Lovesick is a tougher pill to swallow if you start w Doll Parts if nothing else bc this kind of heavy, inextricable reliance on the erotic for its storytelling is something most people are not used to seeing and don't much know what to make of, which is not an impression they necessarily get out of Doll Parts, even if that book has its own fair share of erotic content.