diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index fc1cfaf5a..a3214931d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "aws-sign2": "~0.6.0",
     "aws4": "^1.2.1",
-    "bl": "~1.1.2",
     "caseless": "~0.11.0",
     "combined-stream": "~1.0.5",
     "extend": "~3.0.0",
diff --git a/request.js b/request.js
index fe70a6ed2..8ed57b7f0 100644
--- a/request.js
+++ b/request.js
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ var http = require('http')
   , util = require('util')
   , stream = require('stream')
   , zlib = require('zlib')
-  , bl = require('bl')
   , hawk = require('hawk')
   , aws2 = require('aws-sign2')
   , aws4 = require('aws4')
@@ -1005,14 +1004,16 @@ Request.prototype.onRequestResponse = function (response) {
 Request.prototype.readResponseBody = function (response) {
   var self = this
   debug('reading response\'s body')
-  var buffer = bl()
+  var buffers = []
+    , bufferLength = 0
     , strings = []
 
   self.on('data', function (chunk) {
-    if (Buffer.isBuffer(chunk)) {
-      buffer.append(chunk)
-    } else {
+    if (!Buffer.isBuffer(chunk)) {
       strings.push(chunk)
+    } else if (chunk.length) {
+      bufferLength += chunk.length
+      buffers.push(chunk)
     }
   })
   self.on('end', function () {
@@ -1021,22 +1022,21 @@ Request.prototype.readResponseBody = function (response) {
       debug('aborted', self.uri.href)
       // `buffer` is defined in the parent scope and used in a closure it exists for the life of the request.
       // This can lead to leaky behavior if the user retains a reference to the request object.
-      buffer.destroy()
+      buffers = []
+      bufferLength = 0
       return
     }
 
-    if (buffer.length) {
-      debug('has body', self.uri.href, buffer.length)
-      if (self.encoding === null) {
-        // response.body = buffer
-        // can't move to this until https://github.com/rvagg/bl/issues/13
-        response.body = buffer.slice()
-      } else {
-        response.body = buffer.toString(self.encoding)
+    if (bufferLength) {
+      debug('has body', self.uri.href, bufferLength)
+      response.body = Buffer.concat(buffers, bufferLength)
+      if (self.encoding !== null) {
+        response.body = response.body.toString(self.encoding)
       }
       // `buffer` is defined in the parent scope and used in a closure it exists for the life of the Request.
       // This can lead to leaky behavior if the user retains a reference to the request object.
-      buffer.destroy()
+      buffers = []
+      bufferLength = 0
     } else if (strings.length) {
       // The UTF8 BOM [0xEF,0xBB,0xBF] is converted to [0xFE,0xFF] in the JS UTC16/UCS2 representation.
       // Strip this value out when the encoding is set to 'utf8', as upstream consumers won't expect it and it breaks JSON.parse().