I personally found graded readers to be a useful stopgap between just example sentences and actual native materials. They still feel a bit contrived and I did outgrow them quickly, but in the beginning I got a kick out of just reading something long-form in Japanese.
After that I started reading manga (Yotsubato) for a while, and then I replayed one of my old favorite JRPGs (Genso Suikoden) in its original language.
From there I kinda dabbled in manga and games until I finally found a “real” book I could read (the No 6 Series)
After finishing that series (took over a year), I can pretty reliably make my way through normal fiction books, so I can mostly go with things that interest me. I’ve read some Kotaro Isaka and have started giving Murakami books a go.
(I personally recommend Mariabeetle by Isaka and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami out of what I’ve read so far).
EDIT: Oh, after No 6 I did spend another year reading the Kemono no souja series (There’s a book club in progress here). I liked it but personally felt that it kinda lost steam towards the latter half.