diff --git a/FU.pm b/FU.pm
index 3a8c94c..f43dbaf 100644
--- a/FU.pm
+++ b/FU.pm
@@ -1267,7 +1267,7 @@ handler being run. Any other exception is passed to the C<500> error handler.
 
 While the C<FU::> namespace is used for global configuration and utility
 functions, the C<fu> object is intended for methods that deal with request
-processing (although some are useful used outside of request handlers as well).
+processing (although some are useful outside of request handlers as well).
 
 The C<fu> object itself can be used to store request-local data. For example,
 the following is a valid approach to handle user authentication:
diff --git a/FU/Util.pm b/FU/Util.pm
index 3228694..2074ada 100644
--- a/FU/Util.pm
+++ b/FU/Util.pm
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ use v5.36;
 use FU::XS;
 use Carp 'confess';
 use Exporter 'import';
+use Encode ();
 use POSIX ();
 use experimental 'builtin';
 
@@ -19,7 +20,10 @@ our @EXPORT_OK = qw/
 
 sub utf8_decode :prototype($) {
     return if !defined $_[0];
-    confess 'Invalid UTF-8' if !utf8::decode($_[0]);
+    eval {
+        $_[0] = Encode::decode('UTF-8', $_[0], Encode::FB_CROAK);
+        1
+    } || confess($@ =~ s/ at .+\n$//r);
     confess 'Invalid control character' if $_[0] =~ /[\x00-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x7f]/;
     $_[0]
 }
diff --git a/t/query.t b/t/query.t
index 80f2b00..9d1ca4a 100644
--- a/t/query.t
+++ b/t/query.t
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ is_deeply
 ok !eval { query_decode('%10'); 1 };
 like $@, qr/Invalid control character/;
 
+ok !eval { query_decode('a=%fe%83%bf%bf%bf%bf%bf%0a'); 1 };
+like $@, qr/does not map to Unicode/;
+
 is_deeply query_decode('&&&a=b'), { a => 'b' };
 
 is query_encode