Fun fact: Disney's 2017 live action film remake was originally planned as an adaptation of this book. It would have still starred Emma Watson, but been produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Gulliermo del Toro, with a screenplay by Andrew Davies. This was planned as far back as 2011 or 2012. But somehow or other, the deals with McKinley, del Toro, and Davies fell through, and the project was transferred to Disney, who turned it into a remake of their own version of the tale.
I still think the influence of this book can be found in the finished 2017 film, more than in Disney's animated version. Watson's blunt, prickly, "I'm not a princess" Belle is closer in personality to this book's Beauty than to the 1991 Belle, and certain added moments mirror McKinley's version too. I sometimes wish the Warner Bros./Gulliermo del Toro adaptation of McKinley's book had been made instead – although I wouldn't have fully trusted Andrew Davies with the screenplay, knowing his penchant for increased "tropiness" and needless added sexiness in his BBC adaptations. It's still an interesting "what could have been."