diff --git a/lib/internal/errors.js b/lib/internal/errors.js
index 855ba65c4bb100..91b87023110487 100644
--- a/lib/internal/errors.js
+++ b/lib/internal/errors.js
@@ -1889,4 +1889,3 @@ E('ERR_WORKER_UNSERIALIZABLE_ERROR',
   'Serializing an uncaught exception failed', Error);
 E('ERR_WORKER_UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION',
   '%s is not supported in workers', TypeError);
-E('ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED', 'Initialization failed', Error);
diff --git a/lib/zlib.js b/lib/zlib.js
index 2fb329814d3dee..6263a2fdf94432 100644
--- a/lib/zlib.js
+++ b/lib/zlib.js
@@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ const {
     ERR_BUFFER_TOO_LARGE,
     ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE,
     ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE,
-    ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED,
   },
   genericNodeError,
 } = require('internal/errors');
@@ -815,14 +814,7 @@ function Brotli(opts, mode) {
     new binding.BrotliDecoder(mode) : new binding.BrotliEncoder(mode);
 
   this._writeState = new Uint32Array(2);
-  // TODO(addaleax): Sometimes we generate better error codes in C++ land,
-  // e.g. ERR_BROTLI_PARAM_SET_FAILED -- it's hard to access them with
-  // the current bindings setup, though.
-  if (!handle.init(brotliInitParamsArray,
-                   this._writeState,
-                   processCallback)) {
-    throw new ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED();
-  }
+  handle.init(brotliInitParamsArray, this._writeState, processCallback);
 
   ReflectApply(ZlibBase, this, [opts, mode, handle, brotliDefaultOpts]);
 }
diff --git a/src/node_errors.h b/src/node_errors.h
index 171e2a2e09011c..f4f6e98814cea0 100644
--- a/src/node_errors.h
+++ b/src/node_errors.h
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ void OOMErrorHandler(const char* location, const v8::OOMDetails& details);
   V(ERR_VM_MODULE_CACHED_DATA_REJECTED, Error)                                 \
   V(ERR_VM_MODULE_LINK_FAILURE, Error)                                         \
   V(ERR_WASI_NOT_STARTED, Error)                                               \
+  V(ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, Error)                                     \
   V(ERR_WORKER_INIT_FAILED, Error)                                             \
   V(ERR_PROTO_ACCESS, Error)
 
diff --git a/src/node_zlib.cc b/src/node_zlib.cc
index 3ff3ac13112330..66370e4165979c 100644
--- a/src/node_zlib.cc
+++ b/src/node_zlib.cc
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 
 #include "async_wrap-inl.h"
 #include "env-inl.h"
+#include "node_errors.h"
 #include "node_external_reference.h"
 #include "threadpoolwork-inl.h"
 #include "util-inl.h"
@@ -271,6 +272,8 @@ class CompressionStream : public AsyncWrap, public ThreadPoolWork {
     CHECK_EQ(unreported_allocations_, 0);
   }
 
+  Environment* env() const { return this->ThreadPoolWork::env(); }
+
   void Close() {
     if (write_in_progress_) {
       pending_close_ = true;
@@ -694,7 +697,11 @@ class BrotliCompressionStream final :
           static_cast<CompressionStream<CompressionContext>*>(wrap));
     if (err.IsError()) {
       wrap->EmitError(err);
-      args.GetReturnValue().Set(false);
+      // TODO(addaleax): Sometimes we generate better error codes in C++ land,
+      // e.g. ERR_BROTLI_PARAM_SET_FAILED -- it's hard to access them with
+      // the current bindings setup, though.
+      THROW_ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED(wrap->env(),
+                                           "Initialization failed");
       return;
     }
 
@@ -708,12 +715,11 @@ class BrotliCompressionStream final :
       err = wrap->context()->SetParams(i, data[i]);
       if (err.IsError()) {
         wrap->EmitError(err);
-        args.GetReturnValue().Set(false);
+        THROW_ERR_ZLIB_INITIALIZATION_FAILED(wrap->env(),
+                                             "Initialization failed");
         return;
       }
     }
-
-    args.GetReturnValue().Set(true);
   }
 
   static void Params(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {