diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -29,4 +29,4 @@
 
 Thanks to [Julian Berman](https://github.com/Julian) for the fantastic test suite.
 
-Also thanks to Tim Baumann for his [aeson-schema](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/aeson-schema) library. Hjsonschema's test code and its implementation of Graph both come from Aeson-Schema.
+Also thanks to Tim Baumann for his [aeson-schema](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/aeson-schema) library. Hjsonschema's test code and its implementation of `Graph` both come from Aeson-Schema.
diff --git a/hjsonschema.cabal b/hjsonschema.cabal
--- a/hjsonschema.cabal
+++ b/hjsonschema.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                   hjsonschema
-version:                0.5.0.0
+version:                0.5.1.0
 synopsis:               JSON Schema Draft 4 library
 homepage:               https://github.com/seagreen/hjsonschema
 license:                MIT
@@ -32,14 +32,13 @@
                       , file-embed           >= 0.0.8 && < 0.0.9
                       , hashable             >= 1.2   && < 1.3
                       , hjsonpointer         >= 0.1   && < 0.2
+                      , http-conduit         >= 2.1.5 && < 2.2
                       , http-types           >= 0.8   && < 0.9
-                      , lens                 >= 4.7   && < 4.9
                       , regexpr              >= 0.5   && < 0.6
                       , scientific           >= 0.3   && < 0.4
                       , unordered-containers >= 0.2   && < 0.3
                       , text                 >= 1.2   && < 1.3
                       , vector               >= 0.10  && < 0.11
-                      , wreq                 >= 0.3   && < 0.4
 
 test-suite local
   type:                 exitcode-stdio-1.0
diff --git a/src/Data/JsonSchema/Reference.hs b/src/Data/JsonSchema/Reference.hs
--- a/src/Data/JsonSchema/Reference.hs
+++ b/src/Data/JsonSchema/Reference.hs
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 module Data.JsonSchema.Reference where
 
+import           Control.Arrow
 import           Control.Exception
-import           Control.Lens
 import           Control.Monad
 import           Data.Aeson
 import           Data.ByteString.Lazy (ByteString)
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import           Data.Monoid
 import           Data.Text            (Text)
 import qualified Data.Text            as T
-import           Network.Wreq
+import           Network.HTTP.Conduit
 import           Prelude              hiding (foldr)
 
 combineIdAndRef :: Text -> Text -> Text
@@ -47,18 +47,13 @@
 fetchRef t = do
   eResp <- safeGet t
   case eResp of
-    Left err -> return (Left err)
-    Right b  ->
-      case eitherDecode b of
-        Right (Object z) -> return (Right z)
-        Right v          -> return . Left $
-          "fetchRef returned the following instead of an object" <> T.pack (show v)
-        Left e           -> return . Left . T.pack $ e
+    Left e  -> return $ Left e
+    Right b -> return . left T.pack $ eitherDecode b
 
 safeGet :: Text -> IO (Either Text ByteString)
 safeGet url =
   catch
-    (return . Right . (^. responseBody) =<< get (T.unpack url))
+    (return . Right =<< (simpleHttp . T.unpack) url)
     handler
   where
     handler :: SomeException -> IO (Either Text ByteString)