diff --git a/jrnl/util.py b/jrnl/util.py
index 2164d5d1..727f6043 100644
--- a/jrnl/util.py
+++ b/jrnl/util.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ def set_keychain(journal_name, password):
 
 def u(s):
     """Mock unicode function for python 2 and 3 compatibility."""
-    return s if PY3 or type(s) is unicode else unicode(s, "unicode_escape")
+    return s if PY3 or type(s) is unicode else unicode(s.encode('string-escape'), "unicode_escape")
 
 def prompt(msg):
     """Prints a message to the std err stream defined in util."""