diff --git a/bamboozled.gemspec b/bamboozled.gemspec
index 590b14f..c2200d5 100644
--- a/bamboozled.gemspec
+++ b/bamboozled.gemspec
@@ -26,5 +26,5 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_development_dependency "webmock", "~> 1.20"
 
   spec.add_dependency "httparty", "~> 0.13"
-  spec.add_dependency "json", "~> 1.8"
+  spec.add_dependency "json", ">= 1.8"
 end
diff --git a/lib/bamboozled/api/base.rb b/lib/bamboozled/api/base.rb
index ae950b7..25e39eb 100644
--- a/lib/bamboozled/api/base.rb
+++ b/lib/bamboozled/api/base.rb
@@ -37,10 +37,11 @@ def request(method, path, options = {})
         case response.code
         when 200..201
           begin
-            if response.body.to_s.empty?
+            body = response.body.to_s
+            if body.empty?
               { "headers" => response.headers }
             else
-              JSON.parse(response)
+              JSON.parse(body)
             end
           rescue
             typecast = options.fetch(:typecast_values, true)