diff --git a/Modules/_pickle.c b/Modules/_pickle.c
index 879c18263d505e..179500d6956a78 100644
--- a/Modules/_pickle.c
+++ b/Modules/_pickle.c
@@ -1344,6 +1344,10 @@ _Unpickler_ReadFromFile(UnpicklerObject *self, Py_ssize_t n)
             else {
                 read_size = _Unpickler_SetStringInput(self, data);
                 Py_DECREF(data);
+                if (read_size < 0) {
+                    return -1;
+                }
+
                 self->prefetched_idx = 0;
                 if (n <= read_size)
                     return n;