At 29 years old, Ayana Gray has already made a name for herself in the young adult world. Her debut novel, Beasts of Prey, became a New York Times bestseller and is currently being adapted by Netflix.

Is “Beauty and the Beast” a tale as old as time? Well, not quite. It started as a 1740 novel and has been adapted numerous times over the centuries since, finally achieving pop culture ubiquity with ...