As with several of Yep's other novels, Kind Hearts and Gentle Monsters is set in San Francisco where the author grew up. The narrator, Charley Sabini, attends a Catholic school as did the author, and the city is portrayed with the realism of long familiarity, although it functions mostly as a backdrop for the central psychological interest, the relationship between Charley and Chris Pomeroy. Occasionally, however, Yep employs setting in a way that effectively reveals or reflects the psychological state of the characters.

The compulsively controlling and organizing behavior of Mrs. Pomeroy is mirrored in the restrained Christmas preparations in her home where she sets up a metal artificial tree with ornaments that are all identical. The Christmas season itself is used as an appropriate setting at the end of the novel when Chris and Charley, originally alienated characters, are seen reaching out to each other and displaying...