diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@
 All notable changes to this project (as seen by library users) will be documented in this file.
 The CHANGELOG is available on [Github](https://github.com/luc-tielen/souffle-haskell.git/CHANGELOG.md).
 
+
+## [0.2.1] - 2020-04-25
+### Changed
+
+- Trimmed dependencies to make the library more lightweight.
+
+
 ## [0.2.0] - 2020-04-22
 ### Added
 
@@ -17,6 +24,7 @@
 
 - Introduced Language.Souffle.Class module as separation of the typeclass and the
   Language.Souffle.Compiled module to offer a uniform API in both interpreted and compiled mode.
+
 
 ## [0.1.0] - 2019-12-21
 ### Added
diff --git a/lib/Language/Souffle/Marshal.hs b/lib/Language/Souffle/Marshal.hs
--- a/lib/Language/Souffle/Marshal.hs
+++ b/lib/Language/Souffle/Marshal.hs
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
   , interpret
   ) where
 
-import Control.Monad.Free
 import GHC.Generics
 import Data.Int
 import qualified Data.Text as T
@@ -37,15 +36,40 @@
   | PushStr String a
   deriving Functor
 
+-- NOTE: Free is reimplemented here to avoid pulling in quite a few
+--       dependencies and since we only need 2 functions
+
 -- | The monad used for serializing and deserializing of values that
 --   implement the `Marshal` typeclass.
-type MarshalM = Free
+data MarshalM f a
+  = Pure a
+  | Free (f (MarshalM f a))
+  deriving Functor
 
+instance Functor f => Applicative (MarshalM f) where
+  pure = Pure
+  {-# INLINABLE pure #-}
+  Pure f <*> Pure a = Pure $ f a
+  Pure f <*> Free fa = f <$> Free fa
+  Free fa <*> m = Free $ fmap (<*> m) fa
+  {-# INLINABLE (<*>) #-}
+
+instance Functor f => Monad (MarshalM f) where
+  Pure a >>= f = f a
+  Free fa >>= f = Free $ fmap (>>= f) fa
+  {-# INLINABLE (>>=) #-}
+
+liftF :: Functor f => f a -> MarshalM f a
+liftF action = Free $ fmap pure action
+{-# INLINABLE liftF #-}
+
 -- | Helper function for interpreting the actual (de-)serialization of values.
 --   This allows both the compiled and interpreted variant to handle
 --   (de-)serialization in their own way.
 interpret :: Monad m => (forall x. f x -> m x) -> MarshalM f a -> m a
-interpret = foldFree
+interpret f = \case
+  Pure a -> pure a
+  Free fa -> f fa >>= interpret f
 {-# INLINABLE interpret #-}
 
 {- | A typeclass for providing a uniform API to marshal/unmarshal values
diff --git a/souffle-haskell.cabal b/souffle-haskell.cabal
--- a/souffle-haskell.cabal
+++ b/souffle-haskell.cabal
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@
 --
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 --
--- hash: 3cc0bdbc7d2a4e5c9d8aa3151d7c875a61de85bddc1f6d1136c77e58cb874c3e
+-- hash: b4363dbe7c0e0f23b17900dd5d83779164070f75697dd2b0ffd9afb55628c1d9
 
 name:           souffle-haskell
-version:        0.2.0
+version:        0.2.1
 synopsis:       Souffle Datalog bindings for Haskell
 description:    Souffle Datalog bindings for Haskell.
 category:       Logic Programming, Foreign Binding, Bindings
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@
     , deepseq >=1.4.4 && <2
     , directory >=1.3.3 && <2
     , filepath >=1.4.2 && <2
-    , free >=5.1 && <6
     , mtl >=2.0 && <3
     , process >=1.6 && <2
     , template-haskell >=2 && <3
@@ -91,7 +90,6 @@
     , deepseq >=1.4.4 && <2
     , directory >=1.3.3 && <2
     , filepath >=1.4.2 && <2
-    , free >=5.1 && <6
     , hspec >=2.6.1 && <3.0.0
     , mtl >=2.0 && <3
     , process >=1.6 && <2