diff --git a/json/walker.go b/json/walker.go
index d67bec4..d07204c 100644
--- a/json/walker.go
+++ b/json/walker.go
@@ -176,12 +176,33 @@ func (ew *Walker) runAction(data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
 	return append(quoted, data[len(trimmed):]...), nil
 }
 
-// probably a better way to do this, but...
+// quoteBytes takes a byte slice and returns it as a properly quoted JSON string.
+// Unlike json.Marshal, this does not escape HTML characters (<, >, &) to their
+// unicode equivalents, preserving the original content.
 func quoteBytes(in []byte) ([]byte, error) {
-	data := []string{string(in)}
-	out, err := json.Marshal(data)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	buf.WriteByte('"')
+	for _, b := range in {
+		switch b {
+		case '"':
+			buf.WriteString(`\"`)
+		case '\\':
+			buf.WriteString(`\\`)
+		case '\n':
+			buf.WriteString(`\n`)
+		case '\r':
+			buf.WriteString(`\r`)
+		case '\t':
+			buf.WriteString(`\t`)
+		default:
+			if b < 0x20 {
+				// Control characters must be escaped
+				buf.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf(`\u%04x`, b))
+			} else {
+				buf.WriteByte(b)
+			}
+		}
 	}
-	return out[1 : len(out)-1], nil
+	buf.WriteByte('"')
+	return buf.Bytes(), nil
 }
diff --git a/json/walker_test.go b/json/walker_test.go
index e7348d9..186b986 100644
--- a/json/walker_test.go
+++ b/json/walker_test.go
@@ -50,6 +50,28 @@ var walkTestCases = []testCase{
 	{`{"_a": {"b": "c"}}`, `{"_a": {"b": "E"}}`},     // comments don't inherit
 }
 
+func TestQuoteBytes(t *testing.T) {
+	Convey("quoteBytes preserves special characters without HTML escaping", t, func() {
+		tests := []struct {
+			in, expected string
+		}{
+			{"hello", `"hello"`},
+			{"<>&", `"<>&"`}, // HTML chars not escaped
+			{"aaa<bbb>ccc^ddd~eee&fff", `"aaa<bbb>ccc^ddd~eee&fff"`},
+			{`with"quote`, `"with\"quote"`},          // quotes escaped
+			{"with\\backslash", `"with\\backslash"`}, // backslash escaped
+			{"with\nnewline", `"with\nnewline"`},     // newline escaped
+			{"with\ttab", `"with\ttab"`},             // tab escaped
+			{"with\rcarriage", `"with\rcarriage"`},   // carriage return escaped
+		}
+		for _, tc := range tests {
+			result, err := quoteBytes([]byte(tc.in))
+			So(err, ShouldBeNil)
+			So(string(result), ShouldEqual, tc.expected)
+		}
+	})
+}
+
 var collapseTestCases = []testCase{
 	{
 		"{\"a\": \"b\r\nc\nd\"\r\n}",