diff --git a/aws_lambda_builders/utils.py b/aws_lambda_builders/utils.py
index 6dabe05bd..9f227ea0b 100644
--- a/aws_lambda_builders/utils.py
+++ b/aws_lambda_builders/utils.py
@@ -235,8 +235,11 @@ def extract_tarfile(tarfile_path: Union[str, os.PathLike], unpack_dir: Union[str
 
 def decode(to_decode: bytes, encoding: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
     """
-    Perform a "safe" decoding of a series of bytes. If the decoding works, returns the decoded bytes.
-    If the decoding fails, returns an empty string instead of throwing an exception.
+    Perform a "safe" decoding of a series of bytes. Attempts to find the localized encoding
+    if not provided, and avoids raising an exception, instead, if an unrecognized character
+    is found, replaces it with a replacement character.
+
+    https://docs.python.org/3/library/codecs.html#codec-base-classes
 
     Parameters
     ----------
@@ -248,11 +251,7 @@ def decode(to_decode: bytes, encoding: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
     Returns
     -------
     str
-       Decoded string if decoding succeeds, empty string if decoding fails
+       Decoded string with unrecognized characters replaced with a replacement character
     """
-    encoding = encoding if encoding else locale.getpreferredencoding()
-    try:
-        return to_decode.decode(encoding).strip()
-    except UnicodeDecodeError:
-        LOG.debug(f"Unable to decode bytes: {to_decode} with encoding: {encoding}")
-    return ""
+    encoding = encoding or locale.getpreferredencoding()
+    return to_decode.decode(encoding, errors="replace").strip()
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_utils.py b/tests/unit/test_utils.py
index ab703765c..ba95185ad 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_utils.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class TestDecode(TestCase):
     def test_does_not_crash_non_utf8_encoding(self):
         message = "hello\n\n ß".encode("iso-8859-1")
         # Windows will decode this string as expected, *nix systems won't
-        expected_message = "hello\n\n ß" if platform.system().lower() == "windows" else ""
+        expected_message = "hello\n\n ß" if platform.system().lower() == "windows" else "hello\n\n �"
         response = decode(message)
         self.assertEqual(response, expected_message)
 
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ def test_is_able_to_decode_non_utf8_encoding(self):
         self.assertEqual(response, "hello\n\n ß")
 
     @patch("aws_lambda_builders.utils.locale")
-    def test_isa_able_to_decode_non_utf8_locale(self, mock_locale):
+    def test_is_able_to_decode_non_utf8_locale(self, mock_locale):
         mock_locale.getpreferredencoding.return_value = "iso-8859-1"
         message = "hello\n\n ß".encode("iso-8859-1")
         response = decode(message)