Kinda off topic, Suggestion to try something else
I just finished another Absolute Beginner Book Club read, Happiness, and wow I actually finished it in less than a week 
I think that Ruri is tough because there is so much dialog, in comparison, I would say that the whole volume 1 of Happiness has as much dialog as one week and a half of Ruri 
and half of the dialog is “大丈夫?” 
So maybe you could try that for something less discouraging. Still gets you a nice introduction to reading manga, slang, and so on, but much lighter on the text. Also the vocab sheet is extremely complete, even has the onomatopoeias, super useful to get familiar with them!