Playing around...

hy/compiler/ast27.py

@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ class AST27Converter(object):
 
     def render_bool(self, node):
         """ Render a boolean to AST """
-        thing = "True" if node else "False"
+        thing = "True" if node._val else "False"
         return ast.Name(id=thing, ctx=ast.Load())
 
     def render_symbol(self, node):

hy/lang/string.py

@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ else:
 
 
 class HYString(HYObject, _str_type):
-    def __init__(self, string):
-        self += string
+    def __new__(cls, value):
+        obj = _str_type.__new__(cls, value)
+        return obj
 
     def eval(self, ln, *args, **kwargs):
         return str(self)